50 Fun Facts About Goku

Goku is based on the Monkey King, hero of which classic 16th-century Chinese novel?

Journey to the West stars Sun Wukong, whose name is read Son Goku in Japanese, so Toriyama's hero carries the Monkey King's own name.

Which signature energy beam does young Goku copy after seeing his teacher fire it only once?

Kamehameha took its inventor about 50 years to perfect, yet Goku fires one as a child after a single demonstration.

What sight turns young Goku into the giant ape that unknowingly kills his adoptive grandfather?

A full moon triggers the Ōzaru form, and Goku has no idea afterwards that he was the monster responsible.

What birth name was Goku given as a Saiyan infant before being sent to Earth?

Kakarot was replaced on Earth, where the old hermit who found the infant renamed him Goku.

Which Hong Kong star did Akira Toriyama say was the only one who could play Goku in live action?

Jackie Chan's 1978 film Drunken Master helped inspire Dragon Ball, and the actor has since called Goku his favourite character in the series.

Which DC superhero has Goku battled in both Wizard magazine and the web series Death Battle?

Superman, like Goku an alien sent to Earth as an infant, beat him when the web series Death Battle pitted the two against each other in 2013.

What did Goku become at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, a first for any manga character?

A giant balloon of Goku first floated over New York in 2018, when no manga character had ever joined the parade's inflatable line-up.

Which tennis player, 'the Dragon Ball of tennis' to CNN, named Goku as his childhood inspiration?

Rafael Nadal earned the nickname for an unorthodox playing style that CNN described as being from another planet.

What accident turned the violent Saiyan infant Goku into a cheerful, carefree child on Earth?

A head injury from a fall into a deep ravine erased both his aggression and his mission to wipe out life on Earth.

Why did Akira Toriyama give Goku's Super Saiyan form blond hair in the black-and-white manga?

Less inking for his assistant was the aim: blond hair could be left white on the page, sparing the hours spent blacking in Goku's spikes.

Which tyrant, destroyer of the Saiyan homeworld, is Goku fighting when he first turns Super Saiyan?

Frieza pushes Goku into the legendary transformation, which no Saiyan had achieved in a thousand years.

Which Saiyan prince arrives on Earth as Goku's enemy and ends up his greatest rival and ally?

Vegeta is later persuaded to fuse with Goku into a single warrior in order to fight the monster Majin Buu.

Whom does Goku marry to keep a childhood promise, despite not knowing what marriage was?

Chi-Chi had her proposal accepted years earlier only because the young Goku assumed marriage was a kind of food.

What name does Goku give his first son, in honor of the adoptive grandfather who raised him?

Gohan was the kindly hermit who found the alien infant, and his namesake was once intended to replace Goku as the series' protagonist.

Which fellow martial arts student starts as Goku's rival pupil and becomes his best friend?

Krillin has no visible nose and six burn marks on his forehead, and he fights nearly every villain alongside Goku or before him.

Which elderly martial arts teacher rewards young Goku for rescuing his pet sea turtle?

Master Roshi had also trained Goku's adoptive grandfather, making the two his pupils a generation apart.

Which teenage girl meets Goku in the first chapter and recruits him to hunt the Dragon Balls?

Bulma shares the title of that first chapter with him, and Toriyama said the young Goku would hardly have spoken without her.

What illness does a time traveller warn will kill Goku, before handing him the medicine to cure it?

A heart virus is fated to kill Goku before the next great threat arrives, until the visitor hands over a cure from his own time.

Which bio-android does Goku sacrifice his own life to stop, after training his son as successor?

Cell is about to explode when Goku teleports the pair of them off the planet, giving up his life for the second time in the story.

Which long-lost older brother reveals Goku's alien origins and kidnaps his young son?

Raditz proves so strong that Goku has to team up with an old enemy and give up his own life to beat him.

Which former enemy forms a truce with Goku to defeat his invading brother, then trains Goku's son?

Piccolo grows so close to his pupil that fans joke he is a better father to the child than Goku ever was.

On which planet does Goku first transform into a Super Saiyan before escaping its destruction?

Namek draws Goku in because his friends are there gathering a second set of Dragon Balls to revive those killed by the Saiyans.

Which granddaughter of Goku travels the universe with him in the anime sequel Dragon Ball GT?

Pan joins the hunt for the Black Star Dragon Balls, and as an old woman she glimpses Goku in a tournament crowd a century later.

Which attack, built from energy lent by living things, does Goku use to destroy Majin Buu?

Spirit Bomb, or Genki-Dama in Japanese, is the most powerful technique Goku brings back from his training in the afterlife.

Which technique does Goku bring back from the year he spends on the alien planet Yardrat?

Instant Transmission lets Goku teleport anywhere he likes, a power Toriyama gave him to speed up the pace of the story.

Which divine state does Goku first reach while fighting in Dragon Ball Super's Tournament of Power?

Ultra Instinct was devised for the anime's final story arc to look completely different from every earlier Super Saiyan transformation.

Which actor played a teenage Goku in the 2009 live-action film Dragonball Evolution?

Justin Chatwin wore no wig for the part, because the director felt his own hair already resembled Goku's.

Which American comedy series had Goku fight an evil Mrs. Claus to save Christmas?

Robot Chicken called the sketch A Very Dragon Ball Z Christmas and sent Goku into the fight alongside his son.

Which actress was cast as Goku's Japanese voice when the Dragon Ball anime began in 1986?

Masako Nozawa was chosen by Toriyama himself from her audition sample, and she also voices Goku's two sons and his father.

Which American actor became the English voice of the adult Goku in Funimation's dub in 1999?

Sean Schemmel has also voiced Sun Wukong, the Monkey King who inspired Goku, in the video game Smite.

Which low-class Saiyan mercenary is Goku's birth father, who sends him to Earth in a space pod?

Bardock grows suspicious when every Saiyan is ordered home at once, so he persuades the baby's mother to launch their son off the planet.

Which deity trains the dead Goku in the Other World after the fight with his brother?

King Kai teaches him the Kaio-ken, which multiplies Goku's energy and strength at the risk of straining his body.

Which God of Destruction, woken from a long slumber, comes looking for Goku in a 2013 film?

Beerus is hunting a rival foretold by a prophecy, and facing him is how Goku first reaches the level of Super Saiyan God.

Which Universe 11 warrior proves to be Goku's toughest opponent in the Tournament of Power?

Jiren is forced out of bounds only when Goku and one of his oldest enemies tackle him together, eliminating all three at once.

Which human reincarnation of Majin Buu does Goku leave to train as Earth's next protector?

Uub meets Goku at a World Martial Arts Tournament held ten years after the monster's defeat, and the two leave together.

Which film star's paralysing glare inspired the piercing eyes of Goku's Super Saiyan form?

Bruce Lee was also the anime designer's reference for the slanting, scowling pose Goku strikes the first time he transforms.

Akira Toriyama took the colour of Goku's fighting uniform from the robes worn by which group?

Buddhist monks' robes were borrowed because Toriyama wanted the whole series to have a Chinese look.

Whose accidental wish on the Black Star Dragon Balls turns Goku back into a child in Dragon Ball GT?

Pilaf, an old enemy, was on the point of wishing to take over the world when he shrank Goku by mistake instead.

What covers Goku's body in his Super Saiyan 4 form in Dragon Ball GT?

Red fur was paired with black hair for contrast, after the designer considered and rejected making the hair blond.

Which hit manga's cast did Goku and his friends join in the 2006 crossover Cross Epoch?

One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda has said that Goku inspired both his own hero and the structure of his series.

Which hit manga features an ape named Son Goku as a nod to Akira Toriyama's hero?

Naruto's creator says that when people hear the name Son Goku, they picture the Dragon Ball hero and no longer the Monkey King.

Which keepsake from his grandfather does young Goku wield, extending and retracting on command?

A magic staff called the Nyoi-bō echoes the Monkey King's own weapon, a rod that changes size and extends on command.

In which Japanese manga magazine did Goku make his debut in a chapter published in December 1984?

Weekly Shōnen Jump readers voted Goku only their second-favourite character in a 1993 poll, placing him behind his own son.

Which feature of young Goku did Akira Toriyama remove early on because it was a pain to draw?

His tail was there to set Goku apart at a glance, since Toriyama had made his Monkey King a human with one simian feature.

Which rogue Supreme Kai apprentice steals Goku's body to become the villain known as Goku Black?

Zamasu teams up with a second version of himself, and the pair are erased only when Goku summons the all-powerful Grand Zeno.

A band named Son Goku, fronted by singer Thomas D, was formed in which country?

Germany's Son Goku took the name because its singer admired a hero who stays naive and cheerful while being a great warrior.

Which wealthy owner of a castle on Frypan Mountain becomes Goku's father-in-law when he marries?

Ox-King was himself a pupil of the same old master who taught both Goku and Goku's adoptive grandfather.

In a 1988 public service film for Japanese children, what is Goku taught the importance of?

Traffic safety came first; in a second short made the same year, Goku does the teaching himself, on the dangers of fire.

Why did Akira Toriyama have Goku grow from a child into an adult, despite his editor's objections?

Fight scenes were easier to draw with a grown hero, and Toriyama warned he could not continue the series unless his editor gave in.

Which wish-granting creature does Goku leave with at the end of Dragon Ball GT after saying goodbye?

Shenron is the dragon summoned when all seven Dragon Balls are gathered, the prize Goku first sets out to find as a child.